Customer Reviews

Paris Review

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If you were locked in an attic by cruel parents, and allowed to read only one literary journal, The Paris Review would entertain you with its sword-slicing poetry, move you with soul revealing fiction, and show you the bare-knuckled truth about human nature in its non-fiction. You would emerge from that attic, years later, better educated and aware than 80% of the planet. The other 20%; you could hold your own.

The writing in the Paris Review is probably unmatched elsewhere in a popularly available magazine. Other magazines and reviews sometimes have top quality pieces, maybe one or two excellent pieces in each issue, but I found that the high standards of quality in the Paris Review is very rarely matched. The Paris Review unlike most publications is systematically excellent.

The fictional stories are interesting and seemingly unique. The poetry is vivid and compelling. The interviews and non-fiction pieces also are no less enticing, excellent and important. If you are interested in writing, in reading compelling fiction and non-fiction, or the creative arts generally, I strongly recommend this magazine.

This is one of my favorite subscriptions and I look forward to my quarterly issue. For those who think that $12 an issue is a bit high: there is almost no advertising in this periodical. There are a few ads (typically two near the front and the back cover) from publishers or Chanel, or something else classy. No ads fast food, deodorant, etc...

What this means is that this periodical must survive with almost all of their profits from readers and subscribers.

Onto content. Every single month there averages about 200 pages + of poetry, short stories, essays, and interviews. The content is varied and of excellent quality. Many works are from contemporary and rising authors but several are from older and even deceased writers (such as an unpublished work of Bolano's being printed in four parts in four issues). Again, the content varies but is of high quality. The last issue had interviews with a couple of iconic science fiction writers (I use the term science fiction loosely): Samuel Delaney and William Gibson. These interviews were so well executed and written that I now have novels from both authors, as well as some of the authors they mentioned, on my library queue. In a previous issue I read a Franzen interview and decided that I needed to read his novels (glad I did), as well as a Ray Bradbury interview that rekindled my interest in Fahrenheit 451.

Some of the stories and poetry deal with real issues: sex, drugs, death, life; so this is not all sunshine and happy unicorns. There are a few of those for optimists, but many of the stories and poems are dark, depressing, and real. In their pages I have discovered a wide range of literature and I will continue to support their periodical as long as they maintain their high standards for quality literature.

I also recommend Ploughshares, Harvard Review, and Tin House. (In case you are a book NUT like me)